Hole Cam

A small camera installed in a poker table to allow viewers to see players' hole cards on television.

Related Terms

They can't make me show my cards to this new-fangled hole cam. I don't want people to be able to learn my strategy. -Some old-timer when the hole cam was introduced.

On TV

The hole cam was first used in 1999 on a broadcast of "Late Night Poker" in the UK. The World Series of Poker began using it in 2002, while the World Poker Tour has used hole cams since it began airing in 2003. The hole cam revolutionized televised poker, allowing fans to play along at home and, along with internet poker, is arguably the biggest catalyst of the 2000's poker boom. The camera's inventor, Henry Orenstein, is a Holocaust concentration camp survivor and a 2008 Poker Hall of Fame inductee.

You Should Also Know...

There are two main types of hole cams: a tiny camera embedded in the rail of the poker table that sees the cards when a player looks at them, and a camera under a glass plate at each position that can see the cards when they are face down.